Tomorrow’s research technology co-developed at Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience

Neuropixels 2.0 is a tiny brain probe with several rows of even tinier microphones.

These teeny weeny microphones can listen in on conversations between thousands of brain cells across a brain area. What they actually record, is the very neural conversations from which our intellectual abilities like learning and memory arise.

Neuropixels 2.0 can listen to the same neurons across timescales from milliseconds up to months! At only 1/3 the size of its predecessor, it is tiny enough to be carried on the head of a freely moving mouse.

Norwegian researchers Richard Gardner, Edvard Moser and Abraham Zelalem Vollan from the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience in Trondheim took part in the international joint project.

“The development of this neuroscience tool shows the value of collaborating across borders and disciplines,” says Moser.

An article describing the new tool has just been published in Science magazine.

Reference:

Nicholas A. Steinmetz et.al.: Neuropixels 2.0: A miniaturized high-density probe for stable, long-term brain recordings. Science, 2021. (Summary)

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